Vertical helical or spiral ore separators have been known for the use of concentrating heavy mineral particles and separating them from lighter rock particles. None of these provides a high quality separation due principally to the failure to agitate the slurry and its particles sufficiently to cause good lateral movement across the width of the slurry conduit perpendicular to the direction of travel of the slurry.
A recently issued U.S. Pat. No 5,184,731 discloses a spiral separator in which the concave surface of the helical trough is roughened by a pattern of spaced protuberances and/or a plurality of spaced spirally curved grooves converging from the outside perimeter toward the inside perimeter of the trough. The protuberances of this patent were to improve the separation by agitating the ore particles while the spiral converging channels were provided to direct the flow of the slurry and its ore particles toward the axis of the spiral separator.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved helical ore separator. It is another object of this invention to provide an improved helical ore separator having an improved pattern of grooves for enhanced separation of certain types of slurries.
A further object is to provide drain passageways for fines of particles separated and directed thereto by the grooves and further enhanced by wash liquid flowing across the grooves to remove certain impurities from the fines of particles prior to collection thereof in the drain passageways. An additional object is the provision of selectively adjustable volume of wash liquid to enhance the removal of impurities from the fines to be collected